How well do you understand digital marketing ROI?

 

Digital is supposed to be the the most accountable of all marketing channels, but it turns out that measuring return on digital advertising spend isn’t so easy. Why? Because that most nimble and fast moving of creatures, the modern-day consumer, has a way of confounding the most determined marketer. We bounce from display ads to websites to Facebook brand pages as we make a purchase decision. We share opinions with each other on consumer review sites and through good-old-fashioned, face-to-face conversations. Our complex behavior has given rise to an entire profession of analytics experts who specialize in using tools and models to understand how and when consumers purchase goods and services. With insights gained from analytics, marketers can make better decisions about where to invest their marketing dollars — display ads, search marketing, social media, and the like. On February 22, through a webinar sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association, my iCrossing colleague Doug Bryan discussed some of the models that marketers can use to understand how consumers behave on the web. I provided live  coverage on the iCrossing Great Finds blog. You may read my post here and view Doug’s presentation via the link provided at the top of this post. Happy returns on your marketing investment.

4 technologies every CMO must know

In 2011, IBM released a report that identified the four biggest challenges keeping CMOs awake at night: the explosion of data, social media, the proliferation of channels and devices, and shifting consumer demographics. Those challenges also represent growth opportunities with emerging technology as the catalyst. To help marketers anticipate and respond to a constantly changing marketplace, I have collaborated with four of my colleagues at iCrossing on a white paper, Four Technologies Every CMO Must Know in 2012.

Four Technologies Every CMO Must Know in 2012 uses (I hope) approachable, down-to-earth language to explain geeky sounding terms like HTML5 and Hadoop – and discusses their business impact on marketers. For instance, a section on the data management platform (DMP) focuses on how a DMP helps marketers segment audiences and customize content more effectively.

The paper is the result of the efforts of Doug Bryan, Mac Ling, Malcolm Leach, Matt Pouttu-Clarke, and myself. We combined subject matter expertise ranging from analytics to mobile. As we say in the white paper, it’s important that marketers get into the habit of becoming more comfortable with technology, and it’s also pretty easy to do so thanks to the proliferation of free content from the likes of Forrester Research, Gartner, and Mashable.

What technologies are you tracking?